Here’s a seven-minute segment from Bill Maher’s latest show in which he compares Communist revolutions (especially the Cultural Revolution) with the Woke Revolution. The parallels are numerous, and Maher makes one comment that made me laugh out loud, something I do rarely (guess which comment).
The YouTube notes say this, which is a quote from Maher
The problem with communism – and with some very recent ideologies here at home – is that they think you can change reality by screaming at it.
He ends by going after the wokesters who want to revise biology so it conforms to “progressive” ideology.
h/t: Divy
Or as the post-structuralists would say….Changing the SIGNIFIER does not always change the SIGNIFIED.
Actually, a post-structuralist would likely never say that since it contradicts their theories.
The point is that much intellectual life, in all its aspects, is now besotted with people and a hermeneutics that really think that words overwhelmingly create reality.
There is a haunting story—I think by Graham Swift—about a European family of clockmakers whose clocks, it is gradually revealed, are what creates time. In the story, the clockmakers all live outlandishly long lives. Enthusiasts of applied post-modernism evidently think that their word-salad exercises will do the same for them—forgetting a key aspect of the story, which is that clockmaking is a real technology.
“How long do you have”
That’s my guess, too!
“Don’t worry, I’m a musician — it won’t happen again.”
The Maoist Red Guards were young students and the sight of them angrily shaming and taunting once-respected adults was intended to send a message to the public: our movement is on the right side of history.
Amen Bill Maher! This liberal democrat couldn’t agree more.
As always, Bill Maher is one of the left who’s still sane in America. We have lost John Oliver and Jon Steward to the woke side
About the subject Maher talked about:
From July 2020:
https://unherd.com/2020/07/americas-cultural-revolution-is-familiar-to-the-chinese/
Note: The writer uses a pseudony. He’s an academic based in America. Sad that people can’t write stuff like that openly without risk of beeing harrassed or canceled
I guess ‘Freshman orientation’.
The woke should consider that they’re not the Red Guard — i.e. not backed by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
Not according to republicans. The military is ineffective now because they are so woke. They’re probably marching up the street to cancel you right now.
They will be if they are running the government.
Yes, Jeremy. I was surprised that this escaped notice. By law, the Commander-in-Chief can’t order the Army into action on American soil unless the President invokes the Insurrection Act. This would give him the legal authority to order the Army to do whatever he could get them to do. The soldiers must obey all lawful orders but they are also sworn to uphold the Constitution. In practice this probably means that as long as the C-in-C has lawful authority under the Constitution, his orders will be considered lawful by senior commanders, who will order their troops accordingly. It does not mean that the Army would take it upon itself to interfere with agents of Homeland Security who were rounding up free-speech advocates and sending them to re-education camps at the order of the President. If he was working under suitable emergency powers invoked by the Great Insurrection of 2024 (to coin a working title for the future history books), the Army would stay in its barracks. The Constitution does provide exemptions to habeas corpus, for example.
The Army can’t “uphold the Constitution” by interpreting it differently from the civil authority. That would amount to a coup d’etat.
Much depends on the willingness of the populace to adhere to the conventions a democratic republic. If people have forgotten what those are, there is no telling what could happen.
“compare … Communist revolutions (especially the Cultural Revolution) with the Woke Revolution … The parallels are numerous.”
Two parallel lines do not converge. But seen from a meta perspective, it is revealed they are one and the same thing, but with a lame camouflaged shadow line down the back.
Biting, brilliant, true.
I LOL’d when I heard the words “freshman orientation.”
From NZ, for “The Kaiārahi Tiriti [Tiriti Mentors]”, read “Red Guard”:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/massey-university-sets-new-standard-for-te-tiriti-excellence/4GG5SN5TVJDVXPDV7U2K4HRTLA/
I LOL’d when I found out who the New Soviet Man turned out to be.
Dunno about you, but the line about the New Soviet Man wanting to be on a yacht wearing a Gucci tracksuit, holding a vodka and a hooker made me burst out loud.
Gosh, Ken and I are simpatico about something. One of us is going mushy.
When the most radical of the radicals go too far, they are often repudiated by former allies. This is what happened with the cultural revolution in China. Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I see signs of it happening with the Woke. The repudiation of Hamline’s president by the faculty is an example. There is a difference between demanding real, meaningful change and counterproductive idiocy.
The last line.
[Maher channels a wokester]: “You know what else is just a theory? Biology.”
… the full setup is required.
I didn’t expect this to be so good – I know one of those Red Guard dunce shaming pics from this here website!
Reciting Lennon was particularly reflective – as was the Lincoln quote I never heard before.
I’m guessing “it’s just a theory” (not sure if exact quote) was PCC(E)’s gut-buster.
I am ashamed of my undergraduate school (UIC) for their treatment of him.
I just realized – this is wrong.
We / I are / am simply fragile, privileged ants rooting around in the swath of destruction left by white imperialism and colonialism. Having been living in a hegemony built to profit from racism, Asian hate, and slavery, those systems of power are baked into the very essence if our living breaths. Not a single successful member of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution is left to tell us their side of the story because they were destroyed by Asian hate. I—
Oh, my equal time is up? Funny – I feel like I could just go on forever!
[ disclaimer : satire! ]
[ but ok maybe there’s some truth to it ]
[ ^^^ ain’t it the truth ]
[ ^^^ for thinking ]